


here we go again

by Molly_Hats



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: (They're trapped in a postapocalyptic hellscape, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Beholding Avatar Sasha James, Bittersweet, Canon-Typical The Desolation Content (The Magnus Archives), Canon-Typical Violence, Desolation Avatar Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Episode 165: Revolutions, Eyepocalypse, Multi, No beta we kayak like Tim, Screenplay/Script Format, but they're alive)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-20 17:26:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30008361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Molly_Hats/pseuds/Molly_Hats
Summary: Martin and Jon run into the first survivors they recognize.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Sasha James/Tim Stoker
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	here we go again

**Author's Note:**

> I never know how to tag for TMA, so warnings for canon-typical horror-y content.
> 
> The first 2.5 lines are from the episode.

**NOT!SASHA**  
And what if I let you choose this time? Which one of you would I wear next? Martin looks very comfortable, positively roomy. Oh, wouldn’t you agree, Archivist?

 **MARTIN**  
John, do we – do we need to run?

 **NOT!SASHA**  
Oh, yes, Martin. You very much do. I’ll even give you a--

[SOUND OF FLAMETHROWER. NOT!SASHA CUTS OFF WITH A SHRILL SCREAM. HER SIGNATURE HIGH-PITCHED STATIC FADES AWAY AS THE SOUND OF FLAMES CRACKLING LAYERED WITH THE BAREST HINT OF STATIC BEGINS]

 **TIM**  
( _casual_ ) Fancy meeting you here, boss.

 **SASHA**  
Martin! Jon!

[SHE RUNS UP AND HUGS THEM. WE HEAR SOUNDS OF DISCOMFORT FROM MARTIN AND THE ARCHIVIST AS SHE SQUEEZES THEM TIGHTLY]

 **THE ARCHIVIST**  
( _surprised_ ) Uh, thanks, Sasha. What are you two doing here?

 **TIM**  
Landed here when everything went sideways. I assume you had something to do with it?

 **THE ARCHIVIST**  
I...yes.

[TIM SIGHS]

 **SASHA**  
I told him you guys had to have survived.

[SOMETHING IN THE FIRE CRACKS]

 **TIM**  
_You_ told _me_?

 **SASHA**  
( _sigh_ ) Fine, I was the one who said _you_ survived.

 **MARTIN**  
Me?

 **TIM**  
Yeah. I knew Johnny boy would be fine. Not human enough to die anymore, is he?

[A TENSE SILENCE. THE SOUNDS OF THE MERRY-GO-ROUND CONTINUE]

 **MARTIN**  
So, uh, what’ve you guys been up to?

 **SASHA**  
We stayed here. Our identities seem to have stayed intact somehow. I think it’s our existing connections to the entities.

[TIM SCOFFS]

 **TIM**  
That or the Eye enjoys watching us blow this place up.

 **MARTIN**  
You blow this place up?

[SCREAMS AND CIRCUS MUSIC IN THE DISTANCE]

 **TIM**  
( _defensive_ ) Don’t look at me like that. It comes back.

 **SASHA**  
It’s cathartic.

 **TIM**  
There are worse ways to spend an apocalypse.

 **MARTIN**  
Yeah…( _to Jon_ ) So, are they following the same rules as us? Do they need to...psychologically work through all the domains?

 **THE ARCHIVIST**  
I…Not exactly.

 **TIM**  
Brilliant. Omniscient, and he still doesn’t have any answers.

 **SASHA**  
Tim!

[STATIC BEGINS]

 **ARCHIVIST**  
( _urgently_ ) Martin.

 **MARTIN**  
Now? Really? I thought you already did it--

[STATIC INTENSIFIES]

 **ARCHIVIST**  
I’m sorry.

 **TIM**  
What’s he doing?

 **SASHA**  
( _realizing_ )He’s still making the statements. The Eye is still feeding him, right?

 **MARTIN**  
Y-yeah. That’s exactly it. How did you know that?

 **SASHA**  
You never wondered why I survived when that thing took my place? I made myself useful. Always was too curious for my own good.

 **MARTIN**  
...I see.

 **SASHA**  
Let’s leave your boyfriend to his recording.

 **TIM**  
Wait, you actually--damn. Only took the apocalypse to get you two together, huh?

 **MARTIN**  
Well--

* * *

[FOOTSTEPS AS THE SOUNDS OF FIRE FADE AWAY, AND THE CALLIOPE MUSIC RISES IN VOLUME AGAIN. THE SCREAMS ARE LOUDER. IT SOUNDS LIKE THE ARCHIVIST WALKING AWAY FROM NOT!SASHA’S BURNING BODY]

 **ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT)**  
They went to bed in London and woke up here. If it can be called waking up in a world where there is no sleeping and no bed in sight. As if suddenly shot into another universe, taking the place of their other selves.

It is an uncomfortably familiar feeling for Sasha.

Tim knows he’s in hell immediately when he hears the circus music. He leaps off the merry-go-round and rolls on the grass, shocked he can actually escape in some way. The screams, that damn calliope, the taunting voice that is not his girlfriend, they all tell him he’s dead and there is something after.

He doesn’t want to look for Danny.

He looks for Danny.

He finds Sasha.

“I’m Tim,” he says, trying to reassure her it’s him.

Her eyes water. “Do you remember me?”

“Sasha. The real Sasha.”

Sasha nods, blinking rapidly. She dusts off her suit. “Okay.”

The screams spiral around them, high, visceral notes in the horrific opera.

[SCREAMS CONTINUE IN THE BACKGROUND]

“Burn it down again?” Tim suggests.

“Can’t hurt,” Sasha says. “Killing that bitch might make me feel a bit better.”

“Atta girl.”

There is always more wood. Always more gasoline. Always more TNT, C4, whatever strikes their fancy. Sasha asked, puzzled over it for a few rotations before deciding that it fit the twisted logic of this place. Tim reached the conclusion without questioning it.

They try to destroy the carousel first. They perfect their technique over rounds. Smoke inhalation to knock out Not!Sasha’s victims first (suffocation terrifies but kills quick and less painfully).

[SOUNDS OF COUGHING AND GASPING FOR AIR]

They learned the hard way that stabbing does nothing.

The merry-go-round burns (thrilling) (hot) (filling).

[CRACKLING OF THE FIRE, CREAKING AS SOMETHING LARGE AND METAL FALLS]

And in the shifting ashes, hisses of melted metal and plastic and fat, in the glass-fragile embers, covered in soot and grease, they find the one they are looking for.

It is a creature of nots, a being founded on being unknown and unseen, unnoticed and unrecognized. It’s always in a different place, but it cannot hide. It knows that now. It always tries to hide.

Sasha knows that hair burns too quickly.

Tim learns that fat burns slowly.

Sasha has a memory of scientific explanations for so-called spontaneous human combustion, the wick effect.

They find out it works on not-humans just as well.

 **ARCHIVIST**  
End recording.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNING OFF]

* * *

**MARTIN**  
You done?

 **ARCHIVIST**  
I know what happened to them now.

 **MARTIN**  
( _whisper_ ) Like, capital-K “Know” or normal-person know?

 **ARCHIVIST**  
The Not-Them isn’t the avatar of this domain. They are.

 **MARTIN**  
Oh God.

Are you going to tell them?

 **ARCHIVIST**  
( _sigh_ ) What good would that do?

Besides, I imagine they already know on some level.

[FOOTSTEPS]

 **TIM**  
What, that we’re fear-sucking monsters?

[STARTLED YELP FROM MARTIN]

 **SASHA**  
Figured that out fairly quickly, actually.

 **TIM**  
Around the time we figured out this place follows desolation rules.

[TIM KICKS SOMETHING THAT CLINKS APART]

 **SASHA**  
If we’re just immune, then our killing them with stabbing should’ve worked.

 **TIM**  
Or all the fire-related death shouldn’t have worked.

 **SASHA**  
So here we are.

 **TIM**  
We’re trying to make it as painless as possible.

 **SASHA**  
Well, for the regular people.

 **TIM**  
Yeah, not exactly crying a river over Stranger Danger over there.

 **ARCHIVIST**  
I see.

 **SASHA**  
I would apologize for not being up front about it--

 **TIM**  
( _overlapping_ ) I wouldn’t.

 **SASHA**  
But I’d rather not be smote by the Great Archivist.

 **MARTIN**  
What are you talking about?

 **SASHA**  
John?

 **ARCHIVIST**  
I--how did you---

 **SASHA**  
I’m a beholder, John. Bit behind you, and of course you’re the Ceaseless Watcher’s Special Little Boy--

 **MARTIN**  
( _overlapping_ ) The Ceaseless Watcher’s _what_?

[TIM SNORTS, THE ARCHIVIST SPLUTTERS INCOHERENTLY]

 **SASHA**  
\--but it’s hardly concealed.

There’s not much concealed now. No point, really. I’d guess people in the domains don’t have a firm memory of the past, else they’d get desensitized or develop some other coping mechanism. But it’s an open book to anyone who’s able to read it.

 **ARCHIVIST**  
You thought I was going to smite you?

 **SASHA**  
Are you?

 **TIM**  
Sasha--

 **MARTIN**  
Wait, no. You can destroy avatars?

 **ARCHIVIST**  
I was going to try it on Not-Sasha.

 **TIM**  
( _not sorry at all_ ) Sorry. She’ll be back in a few.

 **MARTIN**  
Right. So.

 **ARCHIVIST**  
The victims would just move on to other domains, or another monster would take over.

 **TIM**  
I resent that.

 **ARCHIVIST**  
Sorry. I’ll just...It’s good to see you two again.

 **TIM**  
I know.

 **SASHA**  
( _laugh, sounding relieved_ ) Don’t let Tim fool you, he’s glad to see you too. It’s been awhile since we met anyone who’s...anyone.

[CALLIOPE STARTS PLAYING AGAIN, OFF-KEY AND MANGLED. SCRAPING METAL, AS IF THE ENTIRE MERRY-GO-ROUND IS REASSEMBLING ITSELF.]

 **TIM**  
Not-Sasha will be back pretty soon.

 **SASHA**  
Come back any time. We’ll roll out the red carpet.

 **TIM**  
It’s made of fire.

 **MARTIN**  
Of course it is.

 **ARCHIVIST**  
Come on, Martin. I think we've seen enough.


End file.
